


Edward and His Wolf

by Dmitch046



Category: Twilight, edward cullen - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-21
Updated: 2015-08-22
Packaged: 2018-02-09 18:50:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1993974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dmitch046/pseuds/Dmitch046
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I have no rights to the original Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer. This is merely fan fiction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Edward had a love that could become as dangerous as he, but is he willing to accept it?


	2. Chapter 2

I saw the large wolf like figure and froze. It stood nearly a hundred feet away and was crouched down sniffing at the ground. My heart dropped to the size of this over grown dog as it looked to reach the height of a horse. It had long black scruffy hair with patches of gray.   
I could barely make out old scars along its back and even noticed its back right leg had been bleeding. Its blood stained the snow where is stood. I couldn’t remember seeing this wolf in Jacob’s pack and doubted having ever seen it before.  
The wolf shifted its weight and my heart dropped, knowing for sure that it had caught on to my scent. My heart pounded so hard I wondered if the wolf would hear. I held my breathe anticipating for it to turn around and spot me. I pictured it lunging into the air and crushing me to nothing. An instant kill I thought.  
But instead the wolf just moved son away from me, completely oblivious to my presence. Luke! Get the hell out f there. It was then my senses came to me.  
I looked to the tree nearest to me and then back at the wolf. Slowly I inched toward the tree. I watched every step, desperately trying to secure any noise; at the same time keeping an eye on the black wolf; my feet making shallow crunching noises in the snow.  
My trembling hand reached the bark and I knelt down leaning my back against the trunk out of the wolf’s sight. I was able to breathe again but my heart still raced. I stared off into the distance of trees and snow. It looked the same in every direction. I was beginning to wonder if Edward’s plan to come meet at the fort after the battle was over was a good one.  
I pictured again how the wolf would easily over power me and then how Edward would find my dead body in the snow. I blinked instantly and the thought was gone.  
Carefully I shifted my weight to check on the wolf. My heart stopped. I turned to my right and stared straight into the wolf’s black eyes. I immediately jumped to my feet.   
I moved so fast my vision failed to keep up as I stumbled back to the ground. The giant beast lowered its head to my level revealing its razor sharp teeth; its drool dripping on my jeans. A low growl rumbled in its chest warning my death. This was a wolf of the enemy.  
My head raced a thousands thoughts. I tried to yell out but my lungs were locked by fear. I cringed when the wolf lifted its large head, revealing its wide gray chest, while it howled its terrifying roar like howl.  
Thinking fast I thrusted all my strength upward and kicked the wolf dead on. Its head cocked to the ground fiercely, with high pitching whines. It thrashed its open jaw side to side as if chocking and backed away from where I laid.  
I pulled myself to my feet and darted in the opposite direction. I lunged and ducked through the brush and branches, dodging every other tree, sprinting as fast as I physically could. I ran so fast, it felt as if my feet did not have enough time to sink as deep in the snow. Frigid air pumped through my lungs stinging my throat. I felt my legs begin to burn, but I only ran harder.  
I didn’t know where I was going but knew I had to keep moving. I came across a fallen tree and braced to make the jump. I threw myself forward but my legs gave out. I came up too short over the wide trunk and fell face first into the snow. I didn’t get up, I couldn’t go any son.  
I just laid there with eyes closed as I caught my breathe; my heart pounding heavily against my chest. But a stirring sound stopped my heart completely.  
I opened my eyes and regretfully saw not one but two overly sized wolves. The idea that I didn’t hear either of these demonic dogs follow me represented an illusion seen in a nightmare. My hands frantically reached for anything nearest to me.  
I grabbed one of the many broken branches as I shot to my feet; eyes still on the wolves. Making a stance I held my ground while the familiar black one moved in closer as the other tagged behind.  
The other one was slightly smaller than that of the black one but was still large in size. Its hair, short and silvery, shined even with the sun’s dim rays. Its jaw hung stupidly open, tongue flapping to one side, as if to already taste the evening meal.  
The black wolf came in closer and I grasped the stick tighter. The smaller one followed the lead and took territory of the open space to my left. It was then that the wolf was close enough for me to finally notice that it only had one eye.   
Its right eye stared me down with much desire. As for the left eye, there was a long jagged scar stretched from where the brow would start down the side of its cheek; its fur layering most of it.   
This smaller wolf intrigued me but I mostly kept my eye on its leader. I had to stay calm, show no emotion. I knew the feeling of being afraid was a better alternative to what lay ahead so I stood steady.   
I breathed heavily and blinked many times to slow my nerve. I was conscious of the wolves seeing the staff tremble in my hands. The black wolf took one step forward and I prayed.  
I prayed for a quick death. I prayed for the battle to be won. I prayed that what I had was good enough. I prayed that my parents forgive me and that one day they would forgive themselves. I prayed for many things but above all I asked for Edward’s sake.  
The black wolf took another step, then another, then another. I watched the giant animal leap into the air with open jaws; it’s spiking razor sharp claws leading the way. It was a slow motion go when I felt my body rotate out of the wolf’s range as it landed. I had missed death by inches  
I looked down at my hands to make sure I hadn’t dropped the staff. I saw it still tightly in my grip. I lifted it halfway behind me and made eye contact with the animal, this time with a half grin.  
The wolf accepted and launched again. Swiftly I held the staff upward, having the broken jagged edge pointed at the wolf. This time it was a much faster motion. The wolf didn’t have time to get out the way and knew it. It let out a defeated growl right before I thrusted the stick through its chest. The stick twisted as it speared through muscle and tissue making a shriveling sound; blood dripped heavily from the open gash, dying the snow a deep red. The wolf’s massive body slammed me into the ground.  
The wolf cried demonically. Whines were screamed through forest causing the crows to flock and relocate. The silver wolf jumped back and then in one leap was right by his master’s side.   
Its ears were hooked back and its tail swung low nervously. It sniffed back and forth along the black’s wolf body line, as if trying to smell out any life. The cries were diminished now and the wolf lay dead above me.   
The dead weight crushed me; its large head slumped on my chest. I felt warm blood smearing against me as I shifted from under the corpse. I used my arms to pull myself half way out and then kicked my feet free. I slowly and stupidly found my ground and was able to stand.  
I looked down at my kill. The red snow was hypnotizing to me and oddly enough I smiled again. I barely noticed that the silver wolf was lying against his leader’s body, with its head leaning on its front paws.   
Then it hit me. I had already done the impossible, now it was time run. I immediately sprinted off in the opposite direction. I had no idea where I was or I where I was going but any break from the forest was good enough. I moved in and out of the trees jumping over any brush or rocks, but I didn’t slow down, because I knew what would be coming for me.  
It all went through my head over and over again. Soon it was going to hit the silver wolf what I had done and then it would be a matter of time before it would easily come find me.  
This thought wouldn’t let me slow down. Dry cold air was sucked in and out of my lungs and frigid blood pumped through my veins. I was running on nothing and I was being pushed by everything. Edward was pushing me; the battle was pushing, the Collins’ existence, and the sweet taste of life.  
In my train of thought I was abruptly knocked to the ground. The air was punched out of me as I jerked onto my back by an angry silver wolf hungry for revenge. This time…I was terrified.   
I had nothing left, my mind was blank. One stare into the black eyes of your enemy do you realize that there is no such thing as a third chance. My heart didn’t race; I was basically frozen in time. I wasn’t able to move to avoid the claws that dug into my chest; the width of its paw as broad as my shoulders.   
The weight alone crushed my ribs and pain shot through me. I was being electrocuted and suffocated at the same time; yelling would only make it worse. When the wolf lifted its giant paw off me a different kind of pain came over me.  
Once the pressure was off, I wasn’t being electrocuted any more but slowly being stabbed through out my sides and lungs. It was too much, I rolled on my side shaking furiously, bleeding into the snow.   
The wolf lowered its head and nudged my back offensively. My ribs moved within me and I screamed uncontrollably. The pain intensified and I couldn’t help but scream louder. This was obviously not going to be an easy death. “Edward? Anybody! Where the fuck are you!” I yelled for anyone and no one.  
The wolf nudged me again harder and I nearly passed out. Nearly. It pushed me onto my stomach, my own weight crushing my insides. Luke please. Keep fighting. It took everything I had just to listen to that stupid but beautiful voice.  
I crawled, or inched, away from the hungry dog, but in one swift move it just laid its paw on my back and I was trapped again. I tried to brace myself but nothing feels like knives digging into your back and being dragged down your spine.   
Screams filled my head. They cried out for Edward and Alice; for Carlisle and Esme. They cursed at the wolf and they cursed at me. It was agonizing to hear these rants and I wanted them to stop, but they possessed me.  
The realization that it was me screaming was horrifying. I wanted it all to stop, just to stop, I didn’t care whether I lived or died I just wanted it to end. Enough Luke! Just a little further, please Luke, just keep going.  
I rolled my eyes in the midst of dying, and heard someone that sounded like me yell “FINE!” and I lifted my head slightly.   
Ahead was more snow and forest, it didn’t look like much of anything. This scene made “keep going” seem more like “keep dying”. But none the less I anchored my hands in the snow and dragged my knees inward. My body stinging throughout; I pulled my right foot furthest in front of me and pushed off the ground stiffly.   
Slowly I turned to the wolf behind me; blood dripped down my back and chest, soaking my already wet clothes. My stature was crooked and I stood clutching my side, but my eyes burned into the wolf staring at me curiously.  
I took a step back, then another, then another, eyes still on the wolf. The wolf stayed in place still watching. I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going, but I just kept moving.   
When coming up to be twenty feet away the wolf took a step forward, and it was then I knew my limit. I kept moving backwards and the wolf followed slowly not sure what I was going to do either.  
But the wolf decided for me as it started running in an attack mode. This I knew was the end, but oddly enough I ran anyway. I was barely able to make it to five strides before I was struck across the neck and head.   
Hot blood splattered in my mouth and trickled profusely down my back and shoulders. The wet dripping feeling made me panic while I the blow of the impact caused me to spin around on my back.   
But I didn’t just land on my back. I hit the ground but didn’t just hit the ground as I kept falling. The earth beneath me buckled with a loud crunching snap. A tree trunk submerged in snow making it impossible to see had snapped under the wolf’s weight. It had been blocking a hidden ditch beneath the snow.   
My left arm hit the side of the trunk as I fell down into the cracked earth. My body slammed onto layers of rock and gravel. “Pain” didn’t do it justice. I was in the kind of agony that was enough to kill three men. I laid there crooked and limp.   
Black blotches drifted in and out of my vision. The wolf, now inches from my face, seem to have trouble reaching me. It barked and snapped its jaws inches from my defenseless being, drool flying every where.   
The atmosphere was being swallowed and then I could barely hear anything. My eyes played with my visions while everything was going dark. They seemed to create a figure in the dark. An outline of a man took shape as he stood at the top and then fiercely reached for the wolf.  
The figure dragged the wolf out of the ditch and then it was gone. Everything was gone; I was left in complete darkness.  
“Luke? Luke!” A smooth voice echoed in my mind. I began to imagine more voices. “Is he alive? Edward!” The voice of an angel screamed or singed his name. It was high pitched but soft at the same time. Alice.   
“ALICE! GET CARLISLE, NOW!” he barked at his sister. Frantic hands swept gently all over my body; from my legs, to my chest, my neck and head. I wanted so badly to shout, “Stop, that hurts!” anything but I was stuck in the darkness. It felt like he was resting his head against my chest. He stayed there for a few seconds keeping count.  
The hands then worked their way under my back and legs. I knew what was coming and wished I were dead then to feel it. When Edward lifted me upward, he might as well had been ripping into me with a thousands knives.   
The shock alone pushed me back into the light. My eyes shot open and I nearly jerked out of Edward’s grip. My yells and curses didn’t ease until I was put back down but it seemed Edward was able to pull me out of the ditch and onto solid ground before I could realize it. Edward may have set me down but he didn’t let me go.  
My body shook uncontrollably in his arms. I kept my eyes closed and pressed my face into his chest. Loving the idea of his scent being the last thing I smelled.  
“Luke. I’m so sorry.” I heard Edward say. I wanted so badly to tell him to shut the hell up, you never did anything wrong, but it was too much to open eyes. I just strained the feeling and kept as still as I could in his hold, preventing further agony. He pressed his face against mine, soothing me with his cool slow breathing.  
“Edward?” Another familiar voice shouted. It was steady and concerned but always confident. “Carlisle,” was all Edward could say.  
“Is he breathing?” he asked quickly kneeling down beside us. “Barely,” Edward responded once again with a one word answer. I felt Carlisle lean over me and he too listened to the sound of my lungs, “Yeah,” Carlisle spoke softly, “Blood is feeling his lungs. Slowly though.”  
His cool hands held my bleeding face and worked their way, palpating down to my stomach. He lightly pressed into my sides and chest, but he might as well have been using a hammer. “What happened?” he finally asked still examining my shattered body.   
“He ran into a pair rogue wolves, they must have been from the south packs.” Edward spoke with remorse and regret.   
Carlisle took off his jacket and covered me with it, and then continued from my stomach down to my legs. “Many of his ribs are broken and so is his left arm.” I felt Edward stiffen. “Give him to me, son” he said calmly more than demanding. Here we go, I thought.   
I didn’t hear Edward say anything; he didn’t have to for me or Carlisle to know what he was thinking. “It’s going to be okay Edward,” Carlisle assured him. There was another pause and then his arms moved from under me and were replaced by Carlisle’s.   
He contracted his arms and pulled me in closer to his body at the same time lifting me up from the ground. My ribs shifted again and something ripped in my stomach. I was screaming before I could register what happened.   
Edward was right at my side, a blur in my vision, but I could tell he wanted me back in his arms. It looked as if he was reaching for me. “Please try not to touch him yet, son, not until we get to the house,” Carlisle said quickly. His hands froze inches from my face, and then dropped sadly at his sides. For Edward’s sake I tried quieting down and basically bit at my tongue until I tasted blood.  
A cold breeze began to hit my face as Carlisle swiftly jetted in and out of the trees. I cracked open my eyes and watched the trees blur all together. Carlisle and Edward ran in sync with each other; Alice in front keeping a steady distance ahead for smart reason.   
Finally the thick trees started to thin out as we reached a clearing of just snow. I expected to see some sign of the house but could only see white in every direction, nothing new.  
With nothing in our way we were even faster. Carlisle’s movements became so smooth I could barely feel him. It made it harder not to focus on the stabbing pain worsening in my stomach. Then I was struck by lighting.  
I cringed and threw my head back, yelling even louder as my ribs felt as if they were being yanked apart. My chest burned and surged all through my body, someone was tearing my stomach open but I didn’t see anyone with a chainsaw; just Carlisle and Edward now staring at me in complete shock.   
“WHAT HAPPENED!?” Edward growled, looking like he was in pain himself. He reached for me, but I just howled, “PUT ME DOWN!” over and over again and found myself cursing uncontrollably. Carlisle gracefully set me down on the ground where I instinctively hurled into the fetal position clutching my stomach trying to keep from being torn apart.   
Edward leaned over me, and I heard him yell again. “Carlisle please! What’s happening?” But Carlisle was too busy examining every inch of me. His hands fluttered all over my body, and then he lifted my shirt. I jumped at the even colder air that bit viciously at my bleeding skin.  
My body hunched over so severely, I caught a glimpse of my stomach. My skin looked to be died with blue and black ink. The colors blended together into a deep purple that followed from the top of my ribs and branched out all along my sides. “He’s bleeding internally, and badly,” Carlisle said almost too routinely as if diagnosing it for the thousandths time. His voice was down played like he knew something I didn’t.  
The question was hanging and it was scaring me on how Edward kept asking Carlisle rather than just reading his mind like he always did. I saw Edward’s lips moving but he spoke too low for my human ears to hear it. He didn’t want me to hear it. I watched for Carlisle’s reaction and he had a look of uncertainty but nodded his head anyway.   
I was trembling; the pain coming in waves now. “But we have to move quickly,” Carlisle added and sparked the movement. Carlisle must have reached for me, when Edward said, “Please, I’ll take him.” I watched his paused expression as he waited for an answer, then he slid his arms under my back and legs but somehow I was able to yell out “NO!”  
Edward jumped, then placed his hand on my back and I knew Carlisle was leaning over me too. “God please,” I mumbled into the ground, my ribs crunching within strangling me from the inside.  
“Luke please,” Edward begged, “What is it, what do you want me to do!” he demanded. My eyes were closed the whole time and I knew I was scaring him. “What’s going on shouldn’t we be moving!?” the angel voice spoke, panicked. Alice was standing over Edward watching but he didn’t seem to notice. “Luke!” Edward snapped in desperation.  
“Help me up,” I groaned immediately barely even thinking. Alice leaned in closer; I almost didn’t hear her whisper “You can’t do that,”  
“HELP ME UP!” I growled the pain becoming unbearable. Again there was a pause, Carlisle was shaking his head and Alice and Edward were giving him the face. The questions and answers were being exchanged at an incredible rate, to fast for me to keep up. Meanwhile the fire was slowly taking me.   
Finally someone said, “Just do it.” Edward carefully wrapped his arms around my back and lifted me up to a sitting position. Finally air was allowed to be pushed back into my lungs and my gasps were deep. His hand dropped to my waist and skimmed my side on the way down, making it feel like he stabbed me. I breathed in deeply praying he didn’t notice, but his hand rested on top of mine very carefully, as he mouthed an apology. Damn it.  
I grinned in the best way possible and slowly scanned the terrain. The snow went on for miles and it was getting dark. The clouds were diving low and high as they shadowed the land, threatening a storm. A large Victorian mansion like house stood low in the distance. We were almost there.  
My breathing barely eased; there was no escaping the pain. My vision was leaving me again, my depth warping around me. I became extremely dizzy and my throbbing head felt heavy. It hurt to balance myself in order to sit straight up. I rocked severely back and forth and Edward finally caught me.  
“Alright,” he said softly, “There’s no more time, we have to go.” I was yanked back up into his arms and we were flying. Not minutes later Edward pulled me through the back glass double doors.  
I caught glimpses of the wide corridor, the ball room, the grand staircase. Then Edward ran down to the end of the hall to Carlisle’s office. Alice was first to open the door, when Carlisle sped ahead and pushed everything off his desk onto the floor. The sound of glass and metal clanging against the wooden floor echoed loudly in my head.  
I felt myself be carefully set down on the desk. My vision was blurred and highly obscured. I could only see the outlines of the Cullen bodies surrounding me now. Their shadows creating white lines in the dark, moving in and out of focus. I tried to concentrate on one in particular; his sculptured figure impossible to miss.   
Edward was closest, standing over me from the left side, then Carlisle who stood at my right. I heard the sound of fabric ripping, as someone tore my bloody shirt off my back. I could feel the material pull at my skin from the dried frozen blood. I was completely numb from the cold; my body shook uncontrollably against the freezing surface of Carlisle’s desk.   
Carlisle started to rummage through the drawers, and cupboards; medical supplies sprawled along the floor. When finding something he thought was useful, Carlisle would slam it on the desk next to me. I watched in a blurred dead-like stare as he yanked on ivory latex gloves and started ripping apart paper packages and peeling the tough plastic.   
He pressed a thick layer of gauze firmly to the open gash under my jaw line, holding it firmly to my neck. I jumped severely as if being electrocuted and nearly slid off the desk had Edward not caught me. My screams filled the whole house but Carlisle still kept his grip. I begged him to let up, but of course I had no fighting chance against a vampire with a PhD.   
Chilling sticky liquid was poured down my neck then all over my body. It was a shriveling, unnatural feeling, my skin crawled as my entire body contracted into a ball. My lungs sucking in air abruptly. “Try to keep him calm,” I heard him say to Edward.   
Edward held me down tightly, and I thought I heard him say something about grasping his hands. I tried to feel his touch but I couldn’t. Our bodies’ temperature so close together, I was left to just figure his hand was already lay across mine. I tried to focus, tried to clench my fingers, but it didn’t seem to be making progress. My numb body was aching stiff, and movement was becoming limited.  
Fresh blood dripped off the side of desk. I felt as if I had been mutilated. I could no longer lift my head and my breathing was slowed. Death was cradling me seductively. Gripping onto me with its ice fingers it gave me air I couldn’t breathe. Blood I couldn’t support. Warmth I could not feel, and feeding me life I could not live. It was the ultimate painkiller.  
My blank stare indicated utter despair from the cold world’s victory. Two trembling hands cradled my face slightly lifting my head. Someone’s smooth cool face inches away from mine, his fingers caressing my stained skin. I felt his regret, his anger, his shame, his everything.  
I could think of only one thing; the sweet sting of the poison that would keep me forever. The deadliest thing that ones feared during the night, I wanted. I remembered the taste of the blissful venom that traced his lips. I want it, I begged. Give it to me.  
It was days later, when the light slowly creped back into my eyes, piercing my vision. Edward was standing by the glass wall looking out into the frozen terrain; his mind elsewhere. I reached to him when a severe stiffness stopped me cold.  
Edward cocked his head towards me, his expression uneasy but alert. I tried to sit up when a jolt of blind stabbing pain wrenched through my stomach around my back and into my neck. I involuntarily fell back into the bed crying in agony, Edward at the side of the bed in fractions of a second.   
What had happened to me? I could barely remember anything. My mind replayed clips from four days ago. Miles and miles of snow, Edward’s face, Carlisle saying something to me that I couldn’t understand, the grand staircase, it was all blurring together.   
When trying to speak, nothing came out, but he knew what I was trying to portray. What. What happened? My throat was dry and stung with a gulp of air, my eyes closed shut. It pained me more that I couldn’t even say his name.   
Edward looked at me with a pained expression of his own that basically just scared me more. His eyes were stern staring straight through me, his mouth pressed into one straight line as if attempting to hold back dry tears. His face was shot with lack of rest to the point of being unrecognizable.   
“Luke,” was all he said. Subtle as if something terrible had happened. My Edward was on the brink of tears even though he could not cry. Then he reached for me slowly; his hand brushing gently against my right limp arm.   
Someone else had walked into the room. A man taller and older than Edward leaned in and somewhat pushed him aside. Edward’s body just slumped behind Carlisle as he sat himself on the bed next to me. The man kept his attention focused on me without even looking at his youngest son.   
“Go get Jasper,” Carlisle barked at Edward. Edward broke his gaze towards me as he slowly covered his mouth with is hand and left the room.  
“What’s happening?” I tried to say again but my voice just rasped the bare syllables. Carlisle only smiled; how he managed I don’t know. I had never seen him like this.  
He had dark circles under his amber eyes aging his youthful face ten years. As he looked at me I noticed that his skin looked even paler as it drew tight over his cheek bones. Carlisle gently laid his hand on my right forearm and seemed as if he was going to say something when Edward walked back in Jasper following him. Jasper walked up and kneeled shoulder to shoulder next to Carlisle while Edward oddly kept his distance.   
Finally Carlisle spoke first. He smiled gently at me with his smooth voice, “First off, why don’t you tell us what you remember and then we can fill in the gaps.” I just stared at him in deliberate silence, while I waited for him to get the hint.   
Carlisle slightly smirked at me half a second and nodded “I understand,” took in an airless breathe then continued.  
“We found you unconscious in the woods but you were far off the track to the bunker. You had severe internal bleeding, and a fractured skull, along with other things.” He pointed out my left arm in a cast and how my right leg was strapped in a walking brace, and just about every yard of gauze I was wrapped in.  
He continued, “You’re very lucky Luke, had we caught up to you ten minutes later…” his voice trailed off as he bowed his head. Jasper tried not to make eye contact while Edward looked completely ill. He stood crookedly trying not the hit the floor screaming, folding his arms to his chest as if trying to hold in some physical pain.  
Again I was confused. They looked so sickly and spoke with delicate tones as if afraid someone was going to hear them. I have been hurt before, I could recover. If I was okay, if I was still alive then why was Carlisle and everyone acting so weird? I began to feel highly annoyed with my confusion.  
Carlisle might have been talking this whole time but he still didn’t answer any of my questions. Wasn’t anyone listening? Yes I was hurt but if I’m alive now, what was wrong? Unless I wasn’t really okay, that there was something else wrong with me. My head spun even faster adding to the heavy throbbing ache.  
“So?” I asked as if I didn’t care what color the curtains were. Edward’s head jerked up, his eyes attentive on me. Carlisle and Jasper looked at each other wondering if I had lost my insanity, while Edward just stared. “What are you not telling me?”  
It was then Jasper spoke. He spoke of the fight and the woods that encircled the battle field. He repeated the plan of which I was to head towards the bunker where Edward was going to meet me later. As he explained my mind replayed bits of memory, barely drawing a puzzle.  
“I killed the wolf?” I couldn’t believe it myself. How in god’s name did I take down a rogue wolf? I half expected for Jasper to have mistaken me for a man of that strength. I tried to fit it all together until Carlisle took over. Then all I could do was listen, while he wrote out my fate.   
“That’s just it Luke,” he started. “The very wolf you killed was that none other than Dakota, the leader of the pack.” He described a wolf with jet black fur bigger than most horses. I just stared as the image formed perfectly clear in my mind. “Dakota is most recognizable by-“  
“-The scar over his right eye?” I involuntarily blurted out. A singe of pain struck my heart quickly. My left shoulder twitched when Carlisle and Jasper just nodded their heads slowly as I got the hint, “You mean Dakota is still alive.”  
“No, but his son is” Edward said quickly. My eyes shot up to his shattered face and his sulking hazel eyes. He finally came closer to the bed, “Diego retreated after Alice and I showed up, only to spread the word to the pack, but the reality is him and more will be back.”  
“We shouldn’t be telling him this, it’s too early,” interjected Carlisle shaking his head. “There’s no time we have too,” Jasper quickly responded but still keeping cool and collective as if the conversation didn’t include rogue wolves and vengeance. But Carlisle disagreed, “He needs rest,” “We don’t have time.”   
Edward just stared at me and spoke over the two easily, “We may have a pact with the east pack but these rogue wolves are something else. A whole other species if you will. They don’t think like we do and they would never understand that what happened three days ago was an accident.”  
By now Carlisle and Jasper quieted down and just let Edward’s words flow freely. “We’ve gotten word from a messenger that they will return.”   
I heard Edward’s voice but the words that made what was left of my shredded heart shutter didn’t match his serenity. I began to feel dizzy; everything they said was becoming blurred into one hollowing sound. “Oh my god,” my voice whispered as my body rolled over in a way my head hit the pillow face down. I didn’t even care about the pain anymore even though the electrifying feeling shot through my veins; it wasn’t enough to overcome the unstable burn in my heart. What have I done?  
Thousands of scenarios raced through my mind all ending in the same way. My family was going to be slaughtered by a pack of man-eating wolves and it would entirely my fault, then of course I too would executed in such a way that was unspeakable even in the vampire world. I tried praying but what god would help me now?   
“Luke?” I didn’t even open eyes when Edward rested his hand on my shoulder. “We will fight, it’s going to be okay,” I heard him say. To Edward, it was always going to be okay, but how could he say that with such ease. I however wasn’t buying it. My only response was to mouth Alice’s name.   
Within two seconds Alice had come in and I had asked the others to leave, even Edward. She sat at the edge of the bed, her stick figure barely made a dent in the mattress. My eyes still closed and head still hidden from the world I waited for her to speak.  
A hand placed ever so gently on mine, her cool skin matching with my shivering surface. Alice took her time before saying anything, just like a doctor would right before explaining that your disease is terminal. I only prayed I was so lucky, however Alice was calm and almost serene.   
“I can’t see them,” she whispered as if it wasn’t bad news. Still I could not say anything. “You know I can’t see wolves. All I’ve gotten is clips you.” My heartbeat kicked up again racing blood faster to my head. The throbbing feeling made me want to cry out, but not a sound was made beside Alice.  
“You seem extremely confused and worried Luke, but all you need to understand is that it’s going to be okay. We can handle any mutt that crossed our borders, there’s nothing to worry about.”  
Finally my words came to me. My hand uncovered my eyes as I they turned to her and stared. “You’ve got to be kidding?! There’s nothing to worry about?!” I said my voice hoarse and strained. “A pack of rogue wolves are coming to desecrate us all because of me and you’re telling it’ll be okay? Alice, you just said that you can’t see anything. I’m surprised you can see me being that I’m going to the first they’ll tear to shreds!”  
Edward came to the doorway. “It is going to be okay. It’s just like Alice said, we can handle it, and all you need to think about is getting better.” He kneeled down next to Alice half smiling. For a second the slight grin actually made me believe him, but it was only for that second before flashes of oversized grizzly wolves tearing at his corpse did I shut my eyes and turned away again.   
“Let me talk to them,” was the first real thing that I was able to blurt out. Everyone was taken by surprise. Edward lifted his hand to me, “Let me talk to them!” I said in a sharper tone, and Edward’s hand fell limp. Then Jasper stepped in, “Well that’s just it you see…they are not exactly the same kind of wolves you’re used to. They are actually Lykens.” I raised an eyebrow not understanding the term. Of course they understood immediately and continued. “Lykens are a different kind of werewolves, and that is once they have gone through the change from human form to wolf form they no longer have the ability to turn back.” My mind still drew a blank.   
Lykens? You mean to tell me there are different kinds of wolves? What the hell is that supposed mean, are there different kinds of terrifying blood sucking vampires too? My thoughts and chest became heavy as my breathing started to be more rapid. One of the monitors I was hooked up to started the go off with an annoying dropping tune, but I kept my still stance all the same; even when Carlisle came to ease the distressed flashing touch screen next to the bed. “And because of that,” Jasper continued in a paradox soft tone, “They thrive on anger to fuel their pack. Those rogue wolves think themselves cursed and so treat the world as such. That explains that when Dakota was finally dead, his body didn’t turn back to his human state because it simply couldn’t.” Carlisle calmed the monitor to silence then gave a half grin toward me. “Really it is just a mutation that has gone to evolve from a normal werewolf but they don’t think of it as that way. They believe it happens to them for a reason and therefore being the chosen ones of a darker side.” Then that was it, I couldn’t hear anymore, because of course if I were to kill an actual wolf, with my luck it would have to been one of the cursed.  
Carlisle stuck my arm with a needle and I fell back to sleep, back into the dark world of bad dreams. Wild dogs bit at me viscously while they tore at my loved ones barking and growling. Their eyes glowing red, all glaring at me; the closer the dogs cornered me the brighter the hue of their eyes became. Blood red to fiery orange to the sun’s bright rays blanketing the sheets.  
Morning had come so quickly and brought no relief. My body ached as it did before. I had woken to the sight of Edward sitting on the floor next to the bed.   
He was holding a book reading its ancient literature easily, I too liked Beowulf. The monitor above me beeped unexpectedly causing me to nearly jerk out my leads. The needles stung and burned; I held still until the feeling faded away.  
Edward turned instantly dropping the book as it made a hard thud as it hitting the wood floor. “Easy,” he said calmly, pressing his cold hands over the leads cooling the stinging sensation.   
My body began to shiver uncontrollably, Edward started at me as if he was about to say something but I already had my mind set on what I was going to say. “I need everyone together, I want to get out of this bed,” I sat up with out thinking and practically tore my insides. Edward stopped me instantly. “What the hell are you doing?!” Instead of thrashing back in pain I kept pushing on not listening to the advice being given. “That’s enough, stop!” Eventually my feet met the cold bare floor and I was able see the room for myself.   
Carlisle had set up the bed in Edward’s room. I recognized the shelves of books and the leather couch pushed up against the wall. Besides the medical equipment, the room was very empty. “Luke, what the hell do you think your doing you’re going to kill yourself!” Edward was no longer joking. The fire in eyes meant the anger I was causing was also hurting him. I stopped for now.  
“I’m alright,” I panted, not being very convincing. “The hell your alright, get back in bed before I drug you again!” My hand lay on his shoulder. “Really I’m okay, Edward…I want to talk to the family,” He stared a me, then paused. “Okay.”  
Soon after Carlisle walked in, I pictured him being in his office or downstairs when he heard Edward’s aggravated voice. “Hey looks whose up, Luke you should really be lying do-“ “Carlisle please let me talk to the family,” I spoke quickly as I began to feel very dizzy, I wanted to get my ransom on the table before I passed out.   
Carlisle gave me the same reaction of a speechless hesitation. “That’s fine Luke, but not in the your condition, please lie back down.” He came closer with his hand on my shoulder guiding me back down, but my body resisted.  
“No I want to get out of this room, please Carlisle this is important, its bigger than me,” When Carlisle hesitated again Edward already knew what he was thinking, and that’s when he jumped in. 

“Carlisle? You can’t be serious, he needs to be resting!” They both looked at each other. “I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t absolutely necessary,” I added. Finally after a long pause Edward stepped back more relaxed and Carlisle turned to me. “We’ll have the meeting, but you…stay right here.” My chest tightened, the idea of staying cooped up in here stole my breath and revolted me. “Carlisle…” His hand stopped me, “I’m sorry Luke I’m staying firm on this one. You can talk to all of us from bed I assure it won’t change the subject on anything.” He finished with a small comforting smile while helping lay me back down. Painful waves washed over me, and the shivering returned. Despite of what I was asking I was relieved to be lying back down again.   
My head rested heavy on the pillow, thumping, while blood rushed through my body. My breathing was shallow and fast, I felt as if I had just run twenty miles.  
“Easy now,” said Carlisle “We’ll talk tomorrow, but for now just rest.” I was able to keep my eyes open long enough to see Carlisle say something to Edward too shallow for my human ears and then walk out of the room. Then without the need for more medication I slipped back into darkness.  
The next day everyone met around my bed, making it seem like I had only a few months to live; something I very much wanted to avoid. Edward sat to my side while Carlisle and Esme kept standing. Alice sat on the floor at the foot of the bed leaving Emmett to join to her. Rosalie and Jasper were leaning up against the wall towards the back, keeping to themselves.   
I started by staring down at my hands concentrating on the IV needle as it pumped medicine through my veins. I wasn’t sure how they were going to take it. How was I going to explain that I knew what had to be done?  
“I wanted to thank you for saving me, which leads me to say I’m sorry for what happened,” Carlisle immediately jumped in, “Luke, you have to understand that this had nothing to do with you, and far as your safety is involved we would have done anything to save and always will.” Everyone nodded in agreement, while I realized the morphine drip was no longer working.  
“In all honesty Carlisle I was afraid you’d say that. Not that I’m not completely grateful for all you guys have done for me, which is why I have asked you here. You and I both know that in two days time when the rogue pack returns they will want bloodshed.” Already Edward knew what I was going to say, his grip to my hand tightened.  
“Wait, where are you getting at?” said Alice. The pained look on her face wrenched my heart; I thought to myself that I would always think of her as a sister. “I’m saying…that you need to let me give them what they want.” The room was silent, not even I breathed a sound.  
They all just stared, until Edward jumped up in rage. “No!” he yelled Esme raised her hand to him, she tried to say something before she was cut off. “No! I’m not letting you anywhere near them, what are you thinking, that I was just going to let you walk out of here, straight to the wolves!?”  
“I think what Edward is trying to say is that it’s out of the question,” Alice interjected, giving Edward a dirty look. I didn’t expect anything right away from Rosalie, however Jasper and Emmett kept quiet, surprisingly so did Carlisle. I looked up at them, “And you…do you feel the same?” Again Edward intervened with another outburst. “Why are you even asking, Luke?! Its not going to happen!” Then Edward turned in Carlisle direction. “Carlisle. You agree?” He stood now frozen almost in a defensive stance.   
“Just hold on Edward, we need to look at this from all angles.” But Edward nearly lost it. “’Look at it’? Look at it from what!? Luke was nearly killed and you want to send him back out again?!” “Edward I think he is onto something,” Emmett stood into the light. I was starting to see that not everyone was against my idea. “Edward please, calm down let me explain,” I placed my hand on his and it was like jump starting a computer. He broke eye contact and melted back down next to me. “Look I’m the one who strayed off the path, and I’ll killed Dakota’s son and I’m the one they want, and I’m not going to have you fight in my place. From what you said Carlisle these wolves will not stop until they get what they want. Let me give them what they want and prevent anymore death.”  
Edward through himself on the bed, “This isn’t happening,” my hand swept over his head. Then Carlisle stepped in closer. “Luke I understand where your coming from, but there is no need. We can fi-“, “No please Carlisle that’s what I’m saying, I don’t want you to fight…any of you.” He just smiled at me.   
“We know, Luke, we know, but having you go out there alone to negotiate with our enemy is too much of a risk.” By now his hand was lightly rested on my shoulder.  
I lowered my head thinking to myself, and then stared straight up into Carlisle hazel eyes. “Lets have a vote.”  
Edward’s grip tightened so hard it began to reel away the rest of the pain. For a moment my body didn’t know where to direct the agony. Carlisle looked at me then everyone else in the room not minding Edward. “Very well.”  
To start my eyes met with Alice’s. They showed hurt and sorrow. “No. No never, we are a family and we’re not going to just hand you over to them.” Her head went down and my eyes turned to Emmett. He put his arm around Alice to comfort her but kept his eyes on me. “I understand Luke. I can’t stop you.” A growling sound came from Edward with his head still on the bed.  
I nodded to the both of them and moved on. Rosalie stepped closer to the bed. She was wringing her hands with a blank stare not necessarily at me but in my direction. “I vote…yes. I think…” My hand stopped her words. “It’s alright, you don’t need to explain.” She gave a painful smile and stepped back.   
Jasper then stood forth. Knowing their cavalier backgrounds I strongly counted on Emmett’s and Jasper’s vote. “You are very close to us Luke, none of us want to lose you, but your right.” Edward lost it.  
The next moment Edward was no longer at my side but at an offensive stance to Jasper. He however held his ground, “He’s right’ Jasper?!” “Edward-,“ Jasper was cut off by Edward’s growl, “Fuck if he’s ‘right’!?” Emmett was now between them, hand on both competitors. “You guy’s enough, the vote is not over yet.” Edward still giving Jasper the death stare slowly backed away.  
It was Esme turn. She smiled slightly to me, and spoke in her soft calming voice, “I couldn’t send one of my own children out there alone. Never, I vote no.” Already knowing Edward’s decision the vote was three to three. Finally it was Carlisle turn.  
The final verdict rested on him, my fate. I held my breathe as he looked right through me, knowing exactly what I needed him to do. I tried to read his expression but I was left in the dark. He dropped his head toward his youngest son. “I’m sorry Edward.”  
“NO!” Jasper and Alice grabbed a hold on Edward just before he could reach Carlisle’s neck. “Edward please calm down, we will be right behind Luke, watching his every move.” With Emmett’s help all three vampires were able to pin Edward to the floor. “Edward, please understand this isn’t all bad. This makes for a good battle strategy. This way we can close in on them. Edward,” Carlisle pressed his hand on Edward’s chest finally able to get him to stop fighting back. “We are not going to let anything happen to Luke.”  
Edward lay limp now but was still growling, “He shouldn’t be out there to begin with, how can you just let him go?!” Carlisle then signaled for the boys to let Edward up. “You know that’s not what going on here, you can trust us.” Edward was cornered now, he finally stopped resisting. He looked at everyone in the room then hung his head low. “Now I can only hope so,” he mumbled.  
Two days passed solemnly. Carlisle continued to give cocktails of medicine numbing my pain at increments at a time. I was even able to stand on my own, long enough for me to leave my chains of the bed and stare out of the window and look over the sea of white. It was dark; the land was locked under winter’s shadow. The gray sky showed no sign of allowing a stream of sun rays through. We were locked in our own world.   
Clean clothes lay on the bed. I thought to myself that hopefully jeans and a pullover are good enough to die in. Carlisle had removed my leads and changed my bandages before leading me downstairs. Edward was there waiting at the bottom. He stared blankly out toward the open doors. I touched him and he took a hold of me.   
“I won’t let you go,” he whispered, “I can’t.” I stepped back from his grip and looked into his eyes. Then when no one was looking I kissed him. “I have to.”  
His hands grasped me tighter, “I love you, my Edward.” I whispered and turned towards the open doors. We walked slowly to the rest of the family; the frigid air biting at my stitches.   
Everyone stood along side each other facing toward the tree line in a battle stance. Silence was the melody and the fear was the rhythm of the soul heart beating. Before facing my last breathes I stood apart from the coven and looked at them. Edward watched me carefully.   
“I ask that you let me speak to them first, before anyone makes a move. I want to make it clear that this is my fault and has nothing to do with you.” Carlisle nodded his head to me kindly. I returned the favor and stepped backed into position as we waited.   
One minute passed; then two, every second feeling like an hour. Snow began to fall when they came.   
An army of thirty wolves crept out from the heavy trees marching in a beautiful unison. Their full dark coats signified their allegiance. The head wolf in the middle of the pact starred straight through me. From the look in Dakota’s eyes I could tell he could smell my scent. The same scent left for him when he discovered his son’s corpse.   
The image of Dakota’s silhouette realizing a human had done his son what no other wolf would dare formed in my mind and for a second, a whelm of amusement came over me.   
A dumb smirk crossed my face when looking in Dakota’s direction. Suddenly I was ready. We waited for the pack to reach their invisible line of an appropriate distance for a battle field. Then silence and stillness took us both. The wind blew softly against my skin guiding me, whispering it was time to go. My eyes slowly drifted from the line of the demonic canines to the tree line, then finally to the sky. The air was sweet and cool as I breathed deeply, closing my eyes. Either someone was protecting me or I had finally lost it.   
My body involuntarily took a step forward, then another, then another. Edward’s tension radiated for miles but I had to ignore it. As I approached toward the visitor’s team one of their own began to make toward us. My mind was blank; I had no idea what I was going to say. What could you say to a rouge wolf whose father you murdered? Um? Hey good to see you again, by the way, sorry for accidentally skewing your dad on a stick. No hard feelings?  
I realized that it was in fact Diego that stepped from the pack, walking toward me. The distance between us closed and it became easier to see Diego’s features. His fur was gray alright but still had a silvery luster no matter where the sun rays was hidden. Even though his size was average in a wild canine way he seemed massive still. His paws grinding the snow and ground he stepped upon, muscles flaring beautifully under his skin. Then for a moment I couldn’t help but think what a wonderful creation of god or another to make. Much thought was put into this species for whatever reason. His eyes dead set burning into me, my heart, my soul, cold to his gaze.  
We were now twenty paces apart from each other, just standing, just…watching. Then finally, the words came. I didn’t feel myself actually talking but heard my own words spilling out. “It doesn’t have to be this way,” I started, knowing the others and the Cullens could hear. A low growl came from growing from Diego’s chest, cautioning me; just as I expected, but I continued still. “Please Diego, realize this. Realize that this isn’t between your pack and mine. I killed your father, I killed Dakota.” When saying his father’s name he took a chomp at the air along with a beautiful nerve ending growl. This sounded off the whole line of wolves to roar in unison as they agreed with my disrespect. My legs barely stood their ground, but luckily I did not falter. “This is between you and me. Let no one else fight this battle but us.”   
Suddenly hisses became seaming from behind me as the Cullens and Edward strongly protested against my pep talk. However Diego’s soldiers were surprisingly silent. I had expected this too for not even I knew what was going to happen until my eyes met Diego’s’. Although it shook me to the core, I ignored the hostile greetings echoing from behind me.   
Diego took a horrible grin to his face and then I got the message. “Find it funny if you want Diego I don’t care. Fuck this battle then, just kill me, but leave the Cullens out of this!” I had done it. Edward was yelling furiously now, his words roaring through the harsh winds. “LUKE, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?”  
I lowered my head slightly and turned toward Edward. “Edward, please.” The rest of the Cullens just stood in shock. They seemed frozen in the snow like statues just staring in awe. But Edwards’s eyes were flaring red. He stood apart now from the line of vampires now. “NO!”  
Suddenly I was thrusted into the air. Huge jaws flashed a row of sharp rabid teeth before digging into my chest and back. I could feel the healing stitches tearing open, splattering fresh hot blood everywhere. Diego ravished my body like a fucking chewing toy. Eventually I hit the ground soaked wet in red. Blood filled my lungs but I couldn’t feel anything.


	3. Chapter 3

I saw the large wolf-like figure and froze. It stood nearly a hundred feet away and was crouched down sniffing at the ground. My heart dropped to the size of this over grown dog as it looked to reach the height of a horse. It had long black scruffy hair with patches of gray.   
I could barely make out old scars along its back and even noticed its back right leg had been bleeding. Its' blood stained the snow where is stood. I couldn’t remember seeing this wolf in Jacob’s pack and doubted having ever seen it before.  
The wolf shifted its weight and my heart dropped, knowing for sure that it had caught on to my scent. My heart pounded so hard I wondered if the wolf would hear. I held my breathe anticipating for it to turn around and spot me. I pictured it lunging into the air and crushing me to nothing. An instant kill I thought.  
But instead the wolf just moved away from me, completely oblivious to my presence. Luke! Get the hell out of there. It was then my senses came to me.  
I looked to the tree nearest to me and then back at the wolf. Slowly I inched toward the tree. I watched every step, desperately trying to secure any noise; at the same time keeping an eye on the black wolf; my feet making shallow crunching noises in the snow.  
My trembling hand reached the bark and I knelt down leaning my back against the trunk out of the wolf’s sight. I was able to breathe again but my heart still raced. I stared off into the distance of trees and snow. It looked the same in every direction. I was beginning to wonder if Edward’s plan to meet me at the safe bunker far away from the battle field was a good one.  
I pictured again how the wolf would easily over power me and then how Edward would find my dead body in the snow. I blinked instantly and the thought was gone.  
Carefully I shifted my weight to check on the wolf. My heart stopped. I turned to my right and stared straight into the wolf’s black eyes. I immediately jumped to my feet.   
I moved so fast my vision failed to keep up as I stumbled back to the ground. The giant beast lowered its head to my level revealing its razor sharp teeth; its drool dripping on my jeans. A low growl rumbled in its chest warning my death. This was a wolf of the enemy.  
My head raced a thousands thoughts. I tried to yell out but my lungs were locked by fear. I cringed when the wolf lifted its large head, revealing its wide gray chest, while it howled its terrifying roar like howl.  
Thinking fast I thrusted all my strength upward and kicked the wolf dead on. Its head cocked to the ground fiercely, with high pitching whines. It thrashed its open jaw side to side as if chocking and backed away from where I laid.  
I pulled myself to my feet and darted in the opposite direction. I lunged and ducked through the brush and branches, dodging every other tree, sprinting as fast as I physically could. I ran so fast, it felt as if my feet did not have enough time to sink as deep in the snow. Frigid air pumped through my lungs stinging my throat. I felt my legs begin to burn, but I only ran harder.  
I didn’t know where I was going but knew I had to keep moving. I came across a fallen tree and braced to make the jump. I threw myself forward but my legs gave out. I came up too short over the wide trunk and fell face first into the snow. I didn’t get up, I couldn’t go any farther.  
I just laid there with eyes closed as I caught my breathe; my heart pounding heavily against my chest. But a stirring sound stopped my heart completely.  
I opened my eyes and regretfully saw not one but two overly sized wolves. The idea that I didn’t hear either of these demonic dogs follow me represented an illusion seen in a nightmare. My hands frantically reached for anything nearest to me.  
I grabbed one of the many broken branches as I shot to my feet; eyes still on the wolves. Making a stance I held my ground while the familiar black one moved in closer as the other tagged behind.  
The other one was slightly smaller than that of the black one but was still large in size. Its hair, short and silvery, shined even with the sun’s dim rays. Its jaw hung stupidly open, tongue flapping to one side, as if to already taste the evening meal.  
The black wolf came in closer and I grasped the stick tighter. The smaller one followed the lead and took territory of the open space to my left. It was then that the wolf was close enough for me to finally notice that it only had one eye.   
Its right eye stared me down with much desire. As for the left eye, there was a long jagged scar stretched from where the brow would start down the side of its cheek; its fur layering most of it.   
This smaller wolf intrigued me but I mostly kept my eye on its leader. I had to stay calm, show no emotion. I knew the feeling of being afraid was a better alternative to what lay ahead so I stood steady.   
I breathed heavily and huffed many times to slow my nerve. I was conscious of the wolves seeing the staff tremble in my hands. The black wolf took one step forward and I prayed.  
I prayed for a quick death. I prayed for the battle to be won. I prayed that what I had was good enough. I prayed that my parents forgive me and that one day they would forgive themselves. I prayed for many things but above all I asked for Edward’s sake.  
The black wolf took another step, then another, then another. I watched the giant animal leap into the air with open jaws; it’s spiking razor sharp claws leading the way. It was a slow motion go when I felt my body rotate out of the wolf’s range as it landed. I had missed death by inches  
I looked down at my hands to make sure I hadn’t dropped the staff. I saw it still tightly in my grip. I lifted it halfway behind me and made eye contact with the animal, this time with a half grin.  
The wolf accepted and launched again. Swiftly I held the staff upward, having the broken jagged edge pointed at the wolf. This time it was a much faster motion. The wolf didn’t have time to get out the way and knew it. It let out a defeated growl right before I thrusted the stick through its chest. The stick twisted as it speared through muscle and tissue making a shriveling sound; blood dripped heavily from the open gash, dying the snow a deep red. The wolf’s massive body slammed me into the ground.  
The wolf cried demonically. Whines were screamed through forest causing the crows to flock and relocate. The silver wolf jumped back and then in one leap was right by his master’s side.   
Its ears were hooked back and its tail swung low nervously. It sniffed back and forth along the black’s wolf body line, as if trying to smell out any life. The cries were diminished now and the wolf lay dead above me.   
The dead weight crushed me; its large head slumped on my chest. I felt warm blood smearing against me as I shifted from under the corpse. I used my arms to pull myself half way out and then kicked my feet free. I slowly and stupidly found my ground and was able to stand.  
I looked down at my kill. The red snow was hypnotizing to me and oddly enough I smiled again. I barely noticed that the silver wolf was lying against his leader’s body, with its head leaning on its front paws.   
Then it hit me. I had already done the impossible, now it was time run. I immediately sprinted off in the opposite direction. I had no idea where I was or I where I was going but any break from the forest was good enough. I moved in and out of the trees jumping over any brush or rocks, but I didn’t slow down, because I knew what would be coming for me.  
It all went through my head over and over again. Soon it was going to hit the silver wolf what I had done and then it would be a matter of time before it would easily come find me.  
This thought wouldn’t let me slow down. Dry cold air was sucked in and out of my lungs and frigid blood pumped through my veins. I was running on nothing and I was being pushed by everything. Edward was pushing me; the battle was pushing, the Collins’ existence, and the sweet taste of life.  
In my train of thought I was abruptly knocked to the ground. The air was punched out of me as I jerked onto my back by an angry silver wolf hungry for revenge. This time…I was terrified.   
I had nothing left, my mind was blank. One stare into the black eyes of your enemy do you realize that there is no such thing as a third chance. My heart didn’t race; I was basically frozen in time. I wasn’t able to move to avoid the claws that dug into my chest; the width of its paw as broad as my shoulders.   
The weight alone crushed my ribs and pain shot through me. I was being electrocuted and suffocated at the same time; yelling would only make it worse. When the wolf lifted its giant paw off me a different kind of pain came over me.  
Once the pressure was off, I wasn’t being electrocuted any more but slowly being stabbed through out my sides and lungs. It was too much, I rolled on my side shaking furiously, bleeding into the snow.   
The wolf lowered its head and nudged my back offensively. My ribs moved within me and I screamed uncontrollably. The pain intensified and I couldn’t help but scream louder. This was obviously not going to be an easy death. “Edward? Anybody! Where the fuck are you!” I yelled for anyone and no one.  
The wolf nudged me again harder and I nearly passed out. Nearly. It pushed me onto my stomach, my own weight crushing my insides. Luke please. Keep fighting. It took everything I had just to listen to that stupid but beautiful voice.  
I crawled, or inched, away from the hungry dog, but in one swift move it just laid its paw on my back and I was trapped again. I tried to brace when knives carved into my back and was dragged by my spine.   
Screams filled my head. They cried out for Edward and Alice; for Carlisle and Esme. They cursed at the wolf and they cursed at me. It was agonizing to hear these rants and I wanted them to stop, but they possessed me.  
The realization that it was me screaming was horrifying. I wanted it all to stop, just to stop, I didn’t care whether I lived or died I just wanted it to end. Enough Luke! Just a little further, please Luke, just keep going.  
I rolled my eyes in the midst of dying, and heard someone that sounded like me yell “FINE!” and I lifted my head slightly.   
Ahead was more snow and forest, it didn’t look like much of anything. This scene made “keep going” seem more like “keep dying”. But none the less I anchored my hands in the snow and dragged my knees inward. My body stinging throughout; I pulled my right foot furthest in front of me and pushed off the ground stiffly.   
Slowly I turned to the wolf behind me; blood dripped down my back and chest, soaking my already wet clothes. My stature was crooked and I stood clutching my side, but my eyes burned into the wolf staring at me curiously.  
I took a step back, eyes still on the wolf. The wolf stayed in place still watching. I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going, but I just kept moving.   
When coming up to be twenty feet away the wolf took a step forward, and it was then I knew my limit. I kept moving backwards and the wolf followed slowly not sure what I was going to do either.  
But the wolf decided for me as it started running in an attack mode. This I knew was the end, but oddly enough I ran anyway. I was barely able to make it to five strides before I was struck across the neck and head.   
Hot blood splattered in my mouth and trickled profusely down my back and shoulders. The wet dripping feeling made me panic while the blow of the impact caused me to spin around on my back.   
But I didn’t just land on my back. I hit the ground as I kept falling. The earth beneath me buckled with a loud crunching snap. A tree trunk submerged in snow making it impossible to see had snapped under the wolf’s weight. It had been blocking a hidden ditch beneath the snow.   
My left arm hit the side of the trunk as I fell down into the cracked earth. My body slammed onto layers of rock and gravel. “Pain” didn’t do it justice. I was in the kind of agony that was enough to kill three men. I laid there crooked and limp.   
Black blotches drifted in and out of my vision. The wolf, now inches from my face, seem to have trouble reaching me. It barked and snapped its jaws inches from my defenseless being, drool flying every where.   
The atmosphere was being swallowed and then I could barely hear anything. My eyes played with my visions while everything was going dark. They seemed to create a figure in the dark. An outline of a man took shape as he stood at the top and then fiercely reached for the wolf.  
The figure dragged the wolf out of the ditch and then it was gone. Everything was gone; I was left in complete darkness.  
“Luke? Luke!” A smooth voice echoed in my mind. I began to imagine more voices. “Is he alive? Edward!” The voice of an angel screamed or singed his name. It was high pitched but soft at the same time. Alice.   
“ALICE! GET CARLISLE, NOW!” he barked at his sister. Frantic hands swept gently all over my body; from my legs, to my chest, my neck and head. I wanted so badly to shout, “Stop, that hurts!” anything ,but I was stuck in the darkness. It felt like he was resting his head against my chest. He stayed there for a few seconds keeping count.  
The hands then worked their way under my back and legs. I knew what was coming and wished I were dead then to feel it. When Edward lifted me upward, he might as well had been ripping into me with a thousands knives.   
The shock alone pushed me back into the light. My eyes shot open and I nearly jerked out of Edward’s grip. My yells and curses didn’t ease until I was put back down but it seemed Edward was able to pull me out of the ditch and onto solid ground before I could realize it. Edward may have set me down but he didn’t let me go.  
My body shook uncontrollably in his arms. I kept my eyes closed and pressed my face into his chest. Loving the idea of his scent being the last thing I smelled.  
“Luke. I’m so sorry.” I heard Edward say. I wanted so badly to tell him to shut the hell up, you never did anything wrong, but it was too much to open my eyes. I just strained the feeling and kept as still as I could in his hold, preventing any further agony. He pressed his face against mine, soothing me with his cool slow breathing.  
“Edward?” Another familiar voice shouted. It was steady and concerned but always confident. “Carlisle,” was all Edward could say.  
“Is he breathing?” he asked quickly kneeling down beside us. “Barely,” Edward responded once again with a one word answer. I felt Carlisle lean over me and he too listened to the sound of my lungs, “Yes,” Carlisle spoke softly, “Blood is feeling his lungs. Slowly though.”  
His cool hands held my bleeding face and worked their way, palpating down to my stomach. He lightly pressed into my sides and chest, but he might as well have been using a hammer. “What happened?” he finally asked still examining my shattered body.   
“He ran into a pair rogue wolves, they must have been from the south packs.” Edward spoke with remorse and regret.   
Carlisle took off his jacket and covered me with it, and then continued from my stomach down to my legs. “Many of his ribs are broken and so is his left arm.” I felt Edward stiffen. “Give him to me, son” he said calmly more than demanding. Here we go, I thought.   
I didn’t hear Edward say anything; he didn’t have to for me or Carlisle to know what he was thinking. “It’s going to be okay Edward,” Carlisle assured him. There was another pause and then his arms moved from under me and were replaced by Carlisle’s.   
He contracted his arms and pulled me in closer to his body at the same time lifting me up from the ground. My ribs shifted again and something ripped in my stomach. I was screaming before I could register what happened.   
Edward was right at my side, a blur in my vision, but I could tell he wanted me back in his arms. It looked as if he was reaching for me. “Please try not to touch him yet, son, not until we get to the house,” Carlisle said quickly. His hands froze inches from my face, and then dropped sadly at his sides. For Edward’s sake I tried quieting down and basically bit at my tongue until I tasted blood.  
A cold breeze began to hit my face as Carlisle swiftly jetted in and out of the trees. I cracked open my eyes and watched the trees blur all together. Carlisle and Edward ran in sync with each other; Alice in front keeping a steady distance ahead for smart reason.   
Finally the thick trees started to thin out as we reached a clearing of just snow. I expected to see some sign of the house but could only see white in every direction, nothing new.  
With nothing in our way we were even faster. Carlisle’s movements became so smooth I could barely feel him. It made it harder not to focus on the stabbing pain worsening in my stomach. Then I was struck by lighting.  
I cringed and threw my head back, yelling even louder as my ribs felt as if they were being yanked apart. My chest burned and surged all through my body, someone was tearing my stomach open but I didn’t see anyone with a chainsaw; just Carlisle and Edward now staring at me in complete shock.   
“WHAT HAPPENED!?” Edward growled, looking like he was in pain himself. He reached for me, but I just howled, “PUT ME DOWN!” over and over again and found myself cursing uncontrollably. Carlisle gracefully set me down on the ground where I instinctively hurled into the fetal position clutching my stomach trying to keep from being torn apart.   
Edward leaned over me, and I heard him yell again. “Carlisle please! What’s happening?” But Carlisle was too busy examining every inch of me. His hands fluttered all over my body, and then he lifted my shirt. I jumped at the even colder air that bit viciously at my bleeding skin.  
My body hunched over so severely, I caught a glimpse of my stomach. My skin looked to be died with blue and black ink. The colors blended together into a deep purple that followed from the top of my ribs and branched out all along my sides. “He’s bleeding internally, and badly,” Carlisle said almost too routinely as if diagnosing it for the thousandths time. His voice was down played like he knew something I didn’t.  
The question was hanging and it was scaring me on how Edward kept asking Carlisle rather than just reading his mind like he always did. I saw Edward’s lips moving but he spoke too low for my human ears to hear it. He didn’t want me to hear it. I watched for Carlisle’s reaction and he had a look of uncertainty but nodded his head anyway.   
I was trembling; the pain coming in waves now. “But we have to move quickly,” Carlisle added and sparked the movement. Carlisle must have reached for me, when Edward said, “Please, I’ll take him.” I watched his paused expression as he waited for an answer, then he slid his arms under my back and legs but somehow I was able to yell out “NO!”  
Edward jumped, then placed his hand on my back and I knew Carlisle was leaning over me too. “God please,” I mumbled into the ground, my ribs crunching within strangling me from the inside.  
“Luke please,” Edward begged, “What is it, what do you want me to do!” he demanded. My eyes were closed the whole time and I knew I was scaring him. “What’s going on shouldn’t we be moving!?” the angel voice spoke, panicked. Alice was standing over Edward watching but he didn’t seem to notice. “Luke!” Edward snapped in desperation.  
“Help me up,” I groaned barely even thinking. Alice leaned in closer; I almost didn’t hear her whisper “You can’t do that,”  
“HELP ME UP!” I growled the pain becoming unbearable. Again there was a pause, Carlisle was shaking his head and Alice and Edward were giving him the face. The questions and answers were being exchanged at an incredible rate, to fast for me to keep up. Meanwhile the fire was slowly taking me.   
Finally someone said, “Just do it.” Edward carefully wrapped his arms around my back and lifted me up to a sitting position. Finally air was allowed to be pushed back into my lungs and my gasps were deep. His hand dropped to my waist and skimmed my side on the way down, making it feel like he stabbed me. I breathed in deeply praying he didn’t notice, but his hand rested on top of mine very carefully, as he mouthed an apology. Damn it.  
I grinned in the best way possible and slowly scanned the terrain. The snow went on for miles and it was getting dark. The clouds were diving low and high as they shadowed the land, threatening a storm. A large Victorian mansion like house stood low in the distance. We were almost there.  
My breathing barely eased; there was no escaping the pain. My vision was leaving me again, my depth warping around me. I became extremely dizzy and my throbbing head felt heavy. It hurt to balance myself in order to sit straight up. I rocked severely back and forth and Edward finally caught me.  
“Alright,” he said softly, “There’s no more time, we have to go.” I was yanked back up into his arms and we were flying. Not minutes later Edward pulled me through the back glass double doors.  
I caught glimpses of the wide corridor, the ball room, the grand staircase. Then Edward ran down to the end of the hall to Carlisle’s office. Alice was first to open the door, when Carlisle sped ahead and pushed everything off his desk onto the floor. The sound of glass and metal clanging against the wooden floor echoed loudly in my head.  
I felt myself be carefully set down on the desk. My vision was blurred and highly obscured. I could only see the outlines of the Cullen bodies surrounding me now. Their shadows creating white lines in the dark, moving in and out of focus. I tried to concentrate on one in particular; his sculptured figure impossible to miss.   
Edward was closest, standing over me from the left side, then Carlisle who stood at my right. I heard the sound of fabric ripping, as someone tore my bloody shirt off my back. I could feel the material pull at my skin from the dried frozen blood. I was completely numb from the cold; my body shook uncontrollably against the freezing surface of Carlisle’s desk.   
Carlisle started to rummage through the drawers, and cupboards; medical supplies sprawled along the floor. When finding something he thought was useful, Carlisle would slam it on the desk next to me. I watched in a blurred dead-like stare as he yanked on ivory latex gloves and started ripping apart paper packages and peeling the tough plastic.   
He pressed a thick layer of gauze firmly to the open gash under my jaw line, holding it firmly to my neck. I jumped severely as if being electrocuted and nearly slid off the desk had Edward not caught me. My screams filled the whole house but Carlisle still kept his grip. I begged him to let up, but of course I had no fighting chance against a vampire with a PhD.   
Chilling sticky liquid was poured down my neck then all over my body. It was a shriveling, unnatural feeling, my skin crawled as my entire body contracted into a ball. My lungs sucking in air abruptly. “Try to keep him calm,” I heard him say to Edward.   
Edward held me down tightly, and I thought I heard him say something about grasping his hands. I tried to feel his touch but I couldn’t. Our bodies’ temperature so close together, I was left to just figure his hand was already lay across mine. I tried to focus, tried to clench my fingers, but it didn’t seem to be making progress. My numb body was aching stiff, and movement was becoming limited.  
Fresh blood dripped off the side of desk. I felt as if I had been mutilated. I could no longer lift my head and my breathing was slowed. Death was cradling me seductively. Gripping onto me with its icy fingers, it gave me air I couldn’t breathe. Blood I couldn’t support. Warmth I could not feel, and feeding me life I could not live. It was the ultimate painkiller.  
My blank stare indicated utter despair from the cold world’s victory. Two trembling hands cradled my face slightly lifting my head. Someone’s smooth cool face inches away from mine, his fingers caressing my stained skin. I felt his regret, his anger, his shame, his everything.  
I could think of only one thing; the sweet sting of the poison that would keep me forever. The deadliest thing that ones feared during the night, I wanted. I remembered the taste of the blissful venom that traced his lips. I want it, I begged. Give it to me.

Xxxxxxx

Days passed by, when the light slowly crept back into my eyes, piercing my vision. Edward was standing by the glass wall looking out into the frozen terrain; his mind elsewhere. I reached to him when a severe stiffness stopped me cold.  
Edward cocked his head towards me, his expression uneasy but alert. I tried to sit up when a jolt of blind stabbing pain wrenched through my stomach around my back and into my neck. I involuntarily fell back into the bed moaning in agony, Edward at the side of the bed in fractions of a second.   
What had happened to me? I could barely remember anything. My mind replayed clips from four days ago. Miles and miles of snow, Edward’s face, Carlisle saying something to me that I couldn’t understand, the grand staircase, it was all blurring together.   
When trying to speak, nothing came out, but he knew what I was trying to portray. What. What happened? My throat was dry and stung with a gulp of air, my eyes closed shut. It pained me more that I couldn’t even say his name.   
Edward looked at me with a pained expression of his own that basically just scared me more. His eyes were stern staring straight through me, his mouth pressed into one straight line as if attempting to hold back dry tears. His face was shot with lack of rest to the point of being unrecognizable.   
“Luke,” was all he said. Subtle as if something terrible had happened. My Edward was on the brink of tears even though he could not cry. Then he reached for me slowly; his hand brushing gently against my right limp arm.   
Someone else had walked into the room. A man taller and older than Edward leaned in and somewhat pushed him aside. Edward’s body just slumped behind Carlisle as he sat himself on the bed next to me. The man kept his attention focused on me without even looking at his youngest son.   
“Go get Jasper,” Carlisle barked at Edward. Edward broke his gaze towards me as he slowly covered his mouth with is hand and left the room.  
“What’s happening?” I tried to say again but my voice just rasped the bare syllables. Carlisle only smiled; how he managed I don’t know. I had never seen him like this.  
He had dark circles under his amber eyes aging his youthful face ten years. As he looked at me I noticed that his skin looked even paler as it drew tight over his cheek bones. Carlisle gently laid his hand on my right forearm and seemed as if he was going to say something when Edward walked back in Jasper following him. Jasper walked up and kneeled shoulder to shoulder next to Carlisle while Edward oddly kept his distance.   
Finally Carlisle spoke first. He smiled gently at me with his smooth voice, “First off, why don’t you tell us what you remember and then we can fill in the gaps.” I just stared at him in deliberate silence, while I waited for him to get the hint.   
Carlisle slightly smirked at me half a second and nodded “I understand,” took in an airless breathe then continued.  
“We found you unconscious in the woods but you were far off the track to the bunker. You had severe internal bleeding, and a fractured skull, along with other things.” He pointed out my left arm in a cast and how my right leg was strapped in a walking brace, and just about every yard of gauze I was wrapped in.  
He continued, “You’re very lucky Luke, had we caught up to you ten minutes later…” his voice trailed off as he bowed his head. Jasper tried not to make eye contact while Edward looked completely ill. He stood crookedly trying not the hit the floor screaming, folding his arms to his chest as if trying to hold in some physical pain.  
Again I was confused. They looked so sickly and spoke with delicate tones as if afraid someone was going to hear them. I have been hurt before, I could recover. If I was okay, if I was still alive then why was Carlisle and everyone acting so weird? I began to feel highly annoyed with my confusion.  
Carlisle might have been talking this whole time but he still didn’t answer any of my questions. Wasn’t anyone listening? Yes I was hurt but if I’m alive now, what was wrong? Unless I wasn’t really okay, that there was something else wrong with me. My head spun even faster adding to the heavy throbbing ache.  
“So?” I asked as if I didn’t care what color the curtains were. Edward’s head jerked up, his eyes attentive on me. Carlisle and Jasper looked at each other wondering if I had lost my insanity, while Edward just stared. “What are you not telling me?”  
It was then Jasper spoke. He spoke of the fight and the woods that encircled the battle field. He repeated the plan of which I was to head towards the bunker where Edward was going to meet me later. As he explained my mind replayed bits of memory, barely drawing a puzzle.  
“I killed the wolf?” I couldn’t believe it myself. How in god’s name did I take down a rogue wolf? I half expected for Jasper to have mistaken me for a man of that strength. I tried to fit it all together until Carlisle took over. Then all I could do was listen, while he wrote out my fate.   
“That’s just it Luke,” he started. “The very wolf you killed was that none other than Dakota, the leader of the pack.” He described a wolf with jet black fur bigger than most horses. I just stared as the image formed perfectly clear in my mind. “Dakota is most recognizable by-“  
“-The scar over his right eye?” I involuntarily blurted out. A singe of pain struck my heart quickly. My left shoulder twitched when Carlisle and Jasper just nodded their heads slowly as I got the hint, “You mean Dakota is still alive.”  
“No, but his son is” Edward said quickly. My eyes shot up to his shattered face and his sulking hazel eyes. He finally came closer to the bed, “Diego retreated after Alice and I showed up, only to spread the word to the pack, but the reality is him and more will be back.”  
“We shouldn’t be telling him this, it’s too early,” interjected Carlisle shaking his head. “There’s no time we have too,” Jasper quickly responded but still keeping cool and collective as if the conversation didn’t include rogue wolves and vengeance. But Carlisle disagreed, “He needs rest”, “We don’t have time.”   
Edward just stared at me and spoke over the two easily, “We may have a pact with the east pack but these rogue wolves are something else. A whole other species if you will. They don’t think like we do and they would never understand that what happened three days ago was an accident.”  
By now Carlisle and Jasper quieted down and just let Edward’s words flow freely. “We’ve gotten word from a messenger that they will return.”   
I heard Edward’s voice but the words that made what was left of my shredded heart shutter didn’t match his serenity. I began to feel dizzy; everything they said was becoming blurred into one hollowing sound. “Oh my god,” my voice whispered as my body rolled over in a way my head hit the pillow face down. I didn’t even care about the pain anymore even though the electrifying feeling shot through my veins; it wasn’t enough to overcome the unstable burn in my heart. What have I done?  
Thousands of scenarios raced through my mind all ending in the same way. My family was going to be slaughtered by a pack of man-eating wolves and it would entirely my fault, then of course I too would executed in such a way that was unspeakable even in the vampire world. I tried praying but what god would help me now?   
“Luke?” I didn’t even open eyes when Edward rested his hand on my shoulder. “We will fight, it’s going to be okay,” I heard him say. To Edward, it was always going to be okay, but how could he say that with such ease. I however wasn’t buying it. My only response was to mouth Alice’s name.   
Within two seconds Alice had come in and I had asked the others to leave, even Edward. She sat at the edge of the bed, her stick figure barely made a dent in the mattress. My eyes still closed and head still hidden from the world I waited for her to speak.  
A hand placed ever so gently on mine, her cool skin matching with my shivering surface. Alice took her time before saying anything, just like a doctor would right before explaining that your disease is terminal. I only prayed I was so lucky, however Alice was calm and almost serene.   
“I can’t see them,” she whispered as if it wasn’t bad news. Still I could not say anything. “You know I can’t see wolves. All I’ve gotten is clips of you.” My heartbeat kicked up again racing blood faster to my head. The throbbing feeling made me want to cry out, but not a sound was made beside Alice.  
“You seem extremely confused and worried Luke, but all you need to understand is that it’s going to be okay. We can handle any mutt that crossed our borders, there’s nothing to worry about.”  
Finally my words came to me. My hand uncovered my eyes as I they turned to her and stared. “You’ve got to be kidding?! There’s nothing to worry about?!” I said my voice hoarse and strained. “A pack of rogue wolves are coming to desecrate us all because of me and you’re telling it’ll be okay? Alice, you just said that you can’t see anything. I’m surprised you can see me being that I’m going to the first they’ll tear to shreds!”  
Edward came to the doorway. “It is going to be okay. It’s just like Alice said, we can handle it, and all you need to think about is getting better.” He kneeled down next to Alice half smiling. For a second the slight grin actually made me believe him, but it was only for that second before flashes of oversized grizzly wolves tearing at his corpse did I shut my eyes and turned away again.   
“Let me talk to them,” was the first real thing that I was able to blurt out. Everyone was taken by surprise. Edward lifted his hand to me, “Let me talk to them!” I said in a sharper tone, and Edward’s hand fell limp. Then Jasper stepped in, “Well that’s just it you see…they are not exactly the same kind of wolves you’re used to. They are actually Lykens.” I raised an eyebrow not understanding the term. Of course they understood immediately and continued. “Lykens are a different kind of werewolves, and that is once they have gone through the change from human form to wolf form they no longer have the ability to turn back.” My mind still drew a blank.   
Lykens? You mean to tell me there are different kinds of wolves? What the hell is that supposed mean, are there different kinds of terrifying blood sucking vampires too? My thoughts and chest became heavy as my breathing started to be more rapid. One of the monitors I was hooked up to started the go off with an annoying dropping tune, but I kept my still stance all the same; even when Carlisle came to ease the distressed flashing touch screen next to the bed. “And because of that,” Jasper continued in a paradox soft tone, “They thrive on anger to fuel their pack. Those rogue wolves think themselves cursed and so treat the world as such. That explains that when Dakota was finally dead, his body didn’t turn back to his human state because it simply couldn’t.” Carlisle calmed the monitor to silence then gave a half grin toward me. “Really it is just a mutation that has gone to evolve from a normal werewolf but they don’t think of it as that way. They believe it happens to them for a reason and therefore being the chosen ones of a darker side.” Then that was it, I couldn’t hear anymore, because of course if I were to kill an actual wolf, with my luck it would have to been one of the cursed.  
Carlisle stuck my arm with a needle and I fell back to sleep, back into the dark world of bad dreams. Wild dogs bit at me viscously while they tore at my loved ones barking and growling. Their eyes glowing red, all glaring at me; the closer the dogs cornered me the brighter the hue of their eyes became. From blood red to fiery orange to the sun’s bright rays blanketing the sheets.  
Morning had come so quickly and brought no relief. My body ached as it did before. I had woken to the sight of Edward sitting on the floor next to the bed.   
He was holding a book reading its ancient literature easily; I too liked Beowulf. The monitor above me beeped unexpectedly causing me to nearly jerk out my leads. The needles stung and burned; I held still until the feeling faded away.  
Edward turned instantly dropping the book as it made a hard thud as it hitting the wood floor. “Easy,” he said calmly, pressing his cold hands over the leads cooling the stinging sensation.   
My body began to shiver uncontrollably, Edward started at me as if he was about to say something but I already had my mind set on what I was going to say. “I need everyone together, I want to get out of this bed,” I sat up with out thinking and practically tore my insides. Edward stopped me instantly. “What the hell do you think you are doing?!” Instead of thrashing back in pain I kept pushing on not listening to the advice being given. “That’s enough, stop!” Eventually my feet met the cold bare floor and I was able see the room for myself.   
Carlisle had set up the bed in Edward’s room. I recognized the shelves of books and the leather couch pushed up against the wall. Besides the medical equipment, the room was very empty. “Luke, what the hell do you think your doing you’re going to kill yourself!” Edward was no longer joking. The fire in eyes meant the anger I was causing was also hurting him. I stopped for now.  
“I’m alright,” I panted, not being very convincing. “The hell your alright, get back in bed before I drug you again!” My hand lay on his shoulder. “Really I’m okay, Edward…I want to talk to the family,” He stared at me, then paused. “Okay.”  
Soon after Carlisle walked in, I pictured him being in his office or downstairs when he heard Edward’s aggravated voice. “Hey looks whose up, Luke you should really be lying do-“ “Carlisle please let me talk to the family,” I spoke quickly as I began to feel very dizzy, I wanted to get my ransom on the table before I passed out.   
Carlisle gave me the same reaction of a speechless hesitation. “That’s fine Luke, but not in the your condition, please lie back down.” He came closer with his hand on my shoulder guiding me back down, but my body resisted.  
“No I want to get out of this room, please Carlisle this is important, its bigger than me,” When Carlisle hesitated again Edward already knew what he was thinking, and that’s when he jumped in.   
“Carlisle? You can’t be serious, he needs to be resting!” They both looked at each other. “I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t absolutely necessary,” I added. Finally after a long pause Edward stepped back more relaxed and Carlisle turned to me. “We’ll have the meeting, but you…stay right here.” My chest tightened, the idea of staying cooped up in here stole my breath and revolted me. “Carlisle…” His hand stopped me, “I’m sorry Luke I’m staying firm on this one. You can talk to all of us from bed I assure it won’t change the subject on anything.” He finished with a small comforting smile while helping lay me back down. Painful waves washed over me, and the shivering returned. Despite of what I was asking I was relieved to be lying back down again.   
My head rested heavy on the pillow, thumping, while blood rushed through my body. My breathing was shallow and fast, I felt as if I had just run twenty miles.  
“Easy now,” said Carlisle “We’ll talk tomorrow, but for now just rest.” I was able to keep my eyes open long enough to see Carlisle say something to Edward too shallow for my human ears and then walk out of the room. Then without the need for more medication I slipped back into darkness.  
The next day everyone met around my bed, making it seem like I had only a few months to live; something I very much wanted to avoid. Edward sat to my side while Carlisle and Esme kept standing. Alice sat on the floor at the foot of the bed leaving Emmett to join to her. Rosalie and Jasper were leaning up against the wall towards the back, keeping to themselves.   
I started by staring down at my hands concentrating on the IV needle as it pumped medicine through my veins. I wasn’t sure how they were going to take it. How was I going to explain that I knew what had to be done?  
“I wanted to thank you for saving me, which leads me to say I’m sorry for what happened,” Carlisle immediately jumped in, “Luke, you have to understand that this had nothing to do with you, and far as your safety is involved we would have done anything to save and always will.” Everyone nodded in agreement, while I realized the morphine drip was no longer working.  
“In all honesty Carlisle I was afraid you’d say that. Not that I’m not completely grateful for all you guys have done for me, which is why I have asked you here. You and I both know that in two days time when the rogue pack returns they will want bloodshed.” Already Edward knew what I was going to say, his grip to my hand tightened.  
“Wait, where are you getting at?” said Alice. The pained look on her face wrenched my heart; I thought to myself that I would always think of her as a sister. “I’m saying…that you need to let me give them what they want.” The room was silent, not even I breathed a sound.  
They all just stared, until Edward jumped up in rage. “No!” he yelled Esme raised her hand to him, she tried to say something before she was cut off. “No! I’m not letting you anywhere near them, what are you thinking, that I was just going to let you walk out of here, straight to the wolves!?”  
“I think what Edward is trying to say is that it’s out of the question,” Alice interjected, giving Edward a dirty look. I didn’t expect anything right away from Rosalie, however Jasper and Emmett kept quiet, surprisingly so did Carlisle. I looked up at them, “And you…do you feel the same?” Again Edward intervened with another outburst. “Why are you even asking, Luke?! Its not going to happen!” Then Edward turned in Carlisle direction. “Carlisle. You agree?” He stood now frozen almost in a defensive stance.   
“Just hold on Edward, we need to look at this from all angles.” But Edward nearly lost it. “’Look at it’? Look at it from what!? Luke was nearly killed and you want to send him back out again?!” “Edward I think he is onto something,” Emmett stood into the light. I was starting to see that not everyone was against my idea. “Edward please, calm down let me explain,” I placed my hand on his and it was like jump starting a computer. He broke eye contact and melted back down next to me. “Look I’m the one who strayed off the path, and I killed Dakota’s son and I’m the one they want, and I’m not going to have you fight in my place. From what you said Carlisle these wolves will not stop until they get what they want. Let me give them what they want and prevent anymore death.”  
Edward threw himself on the bed, “This isn’t happening,” my hand swept over his head. Then Carlisle stepped in closer. “Luke I understand where your coming from, but there is no need. We can fi-“, “No please Carlisle that’s what I’m saying, I don’t want you to fight…any of you.” He just smiled at me.   
“We know, Luke, we know, but having you go out there alone to negotiate with our enemy is too much of a risk.” By now his hand was lightly rested on my shoulder.  
I lowered my head thinking to myself, and then stared straight up into Carlisle hazel eyes. “Lets have a vote.”  
Edward’s grip tightened so hard it began to reel away the rest of the pain. For a moment my body didn’t know where to direct the agony. Carlisle looked at me then everyone else in the room not minding Edward. “Very well.”  
To start my eyes met with Alice’s. They showed hurt and sorrow. “No. No never, we are a family and we’re not going to just hand you over to them.” Her head went down and my eyes turned to Emmett. He put his arm around Alice to comfort her but kept his eyes on me. “I understand Luke. I can’t stop you.” A growling sound came from Edward with his head still on the bed.  
I nodded to the both of them and moved on. Rosalie stepped closer to the bed. She was wringing her hands with a blank stare not necessarily at me but in my direction. “I vote…yes. I think…” My hand stopped her words. “It’s alright, you don’t need to explain.” She gave a painful smile and stepped back.   
Jasper then stood forth. Knowing their cavalier backgrounds I strongly counted on Emmett’s and Jasper’s vote. “You are very close to us Luke, none of us want to lose you, but your right.” Edward lost it.  
The next moment Edward was no longer at my side but at an offensive stance to Jasper. He however held his ground, “He’s right’ Jasper?!” Edward snapped “Ed-,“ Jasper was cut off by Edward’s growl, “Fuck if he’s ‘right’!?” Emmett was now between them, hand on both competitors. “You guy’s enough, the vote is not over yet.” Edward still giving Jasper the death stare slowly backed away.  
It was Esme turn. She smiled slightly to me, and spoke in her soft calming voice, “I couldn’t send one of my own children out there alone. Never, I vote no.” Already knowing Edward’s decision the vote was three to three. Finally it was Carlisle turn.  
The final verdict rested on him, my fate. I held my breath, as he looked right through me, knowing exactly what I needed him to do. I tried to read his expression but I was left in the dark. He dropped his head toward his youngest son. “I’m sorry Edward.”  
“NO!” Edward roared Jasper and Alice grabbed a hold on Edward just before he could reach Carlisle’s neck. “Edward please calm down, we will be right behind Luke, watching his every move.” With Emmett’s help all three vampires were able to pin Edward to the floor. “Edward, please understand this isn’t all bad. This makes for a good battle strategy. This way we can close in on them. Edward,” Carlisle pressed his hand on Edward’s chest finally able to get him to stop fighting back. “We are not going to let anything happen to Luke.”  
Edward lay limp now but was still growling, “He shouldn’t be out there to begin with, how can you just let him go?!” Carlisle then signaled for the boys to let Edward up. “You know that’s not what going on here, you can trust us.” Edward was cornered now he finally stopped resisting. He looked at everyone in the room then hung his head low. “Now I can only hope so,” he mumbled.  
Two days passed solemnly. Carlisle continued to give cocktails of medicine numbing my pain increments at a time. I was even able to stand on my own, long enough for me to leave my chains of the bed and stare out of the window and look over the sea of white. It was dark; the land was locked under winter’s shadow. The gray sky showed no sign of allowing a stream of sunrays through. We were locked in our own world.   
Clean clothes lay on the bed. I thought to myself that hopefully jeans and a pullover are good enough to die in. Carlisle had removed my leads and changed my bandages before leading me downstairs. Edward was there waiting at the bottom. He stared blankly out toward the open doors. I touched him and he took a hold of me.   
“I won’t let you go,” he whispered, “I can’t.” I stepped back from his grip and looked into his eyes. Then when no one was looking I kissed him. “I have to.”  
His hands grasped me tighter, “I love you, my Edward.” I whispered and turned towards the open doors. We walked slowly to the rest of the family; the frigid air biting at my stitches.   
Everyone stood along side each other facing toward the tree line in a battle stance. Silence was the melody and the fear was the rhythm of the soul heart beating. Before facing my last breathes I stood apart from the coven and looked at them. Edward watched me carefully.   
“I ask that you let me speak to them first, before anyone makes a move. I want to make it clear that this is my fault and that what happened has nothing to do with you.” Carlisle nodded his head to me kindly. I returned the favor and stepped backed into position as we waited.   
One minute passed; then two, every second feeling like an hour. Snow began to fall when they came.   
An army of thirty wolves crept out from the heavy trees marching in a beautiful unison. Their full dark coats signified their allegiance. The head wolf in the middle of the pact starred straight through me. From the look in Diego’s eyes I could tell he could smell my scent. The same scent left for him when he discovered his son’s corpse.   
The image of Diego’s silhouette realizing that a human had done to his father what no other wolf would dare to do, formed in my mind and for a second, a whelm of amusement came over me.   
A dumb smirk crossed my face when looking in Diego’s direction. Suddenly I was ready. We waited for the pack to reach their invisible line of an appropriate distance for a battlefield. Then silence and stillness took us both. The wind blew softly against my skin guiding me, whispering it was time to go. My eyes slowly drifted from the line of the demonic canines to the tree line, then finally to the sky. The air was sweet and cool as I breathed deeply, closing my eyes. Either someone was protecting me or I had finally lost it.   
My body involuntarily took a step forward, then another, then another. Edward’s tension radiated for miles but I had to ignore it. As I approached toward the visitor’s team one of their own began to make toward us. My mind was blank; I had no idea what I was going to say. What could you say to a rouge wolf whose father you murdered? Um? Hey good to see you again, by the way, sorry for accidentally skewing your dad on a stick. No hard feelings?  
I realized that it was in fact Diego that stepped from the pack, walking toward me. The distance between us closed and it became easier to see Diego’s features. His fur was gray alright but still had a silvery luster no matter where the sun rays was hidden. Even though his size was average in a wild canine way he seemed massive still. His paws grinding the snow he stepped upon, muscles flaring beautifully under his skin. Then for a moment I couldn’t help but think what a wonderful creation of god or another to make. Much thought was put into this species for whatever reason. His eyes dead set burning into me, my heart, my soul, cold to his gaze.  
We were now twenty paces apart from each other, just standing, just…watching. Then finally, the words came. I didn’t feel myself actually talking but heard my own words spilling out. “It doesn’t have to be this way,” I started, knowing the others and the Collins could hear. A low growl came from growing from Diego’s chest, cautioning me; just as I expected, but I continued still. “Please Diego, realize this. Realize that this isn’t between your pack and mine. I killed your father, I killed Dakota.” When saying his father’s name he took a chomp at the air along with a beautiful nerve ending growl. This sounded off the whole line of wolves to roar in unison as they agreed with my disrespect. My legs barely stood their ground, but luckily I did not falter. “This is between you and me. Let no one else fight this battle but us.”   
Suddenly hisses became seaming from behind me as the Collins and Edward strongly protested against my pep talk. However Diego’s soldiers were surprisingly restrained. I had expected this too for not even I knew what was going to happen until my eyes met Diego’s’. Although it shook me to the core, I ignored the hostile greetings echoing from behind me.   
Diego took a horrible grin to his face and then I got the message. “Find it funny if you want Diego I don’t care. Fuck this battle then, just kill me, but leave the Collins out of this!” I had done it. Edward was yelling furiously now, his words roaring through the harsh winds. “LUKE, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?”  
I lowered my head slightly and turned toward Edward. “Edward, please.” The rest of the Cullens just stood in shock. They seemed frozen in the snow like statues just staring in awe. But Edwards’s eyes were red. He stood apart now from the line of vampires now. “NO!”  
He watched in horror as I was thrusted into the air. Huge jaws flashed a row of sharp rabid teeth before digging into my chest and back. I could feel the healing stitches tearing open, splattering fresh hot blood everywhere. Diego ravished my body like a fucking chewing toy. Eventually I hit the ground soaked wet in red. Blood filled my lungs but I couldn’t feel anything anymore. My ears rang and my heartbeat took over any sort of sound from the outside world.   
Diego stood over me growling and flaring his blood dripping teeth. From the angle I assumed my ending would be his jaw to my neck. Is he going to be quick about it or make me suffer. Would he eat me afterword’s? Whatever Diego's tactic, I didn't...couldn't fight back. I could barely roll on my head enough to get a distorted slightly upside down view of where Edward and the rest of the coven was standing.   
Every member of the Cullen family was holding Edward back, his eyes fuming red as he lost all sense of humanity. He was now as ramped and feral as the beast that hovered over me. I smiled at the slightest to the people I would last see and closed my eyes for the ending.  
More heavy movement went on above me. Growling and dog yelps echoed all around as I assumed the other members of the pack were now allowed to participate in the snacking. The growling became more aggressive and howls from afar began to sing with the wind, as if the others wolves were cheering on their pack mates. I tried to tune the sounds out and focus on my last image, Edward's sweet face.   
A gust of chilling wind hit my face and startled my eyes open. For the first time in days sun rays beamed over me. The brightness overwhelmed my eyes as I tried to see what was happening. Then all the canine wines and cries died down as a tall human figure stood nearby. Thoughts of heaven circled my mind.  
Wanting to test my theory I attempted to pull myself up. However more electric shocks coursed through my veins. My human body wasn’t going to let me. My theory was debunked immediately with a chilling scream leaving my lungs. My eyes rolled into my head and I lay still finally giving up. “Ju-just do it...I don't care any mm…mo…,” I breathed tasting copper, but I was left untouched.   
Instead warm hands came down on me with a soft whisper of encouragement. My body was gone. I’m sorry Edward, forgive me. However the light seeped into my eyes once to see a stranger. Dark brown eyes gleamed back at me, with a warm, but concerned smile. I knew this face. Jacob.  
I mouthed his name but just a sad wine came from my throat. His grin became wider and yet softer. “It's alright Luke, save your strength, you’re safe now...” Jacob warmly lifted me up from the biting snow and up high against his hot chest.   
He wasn't wearing a shirt, only a pair of snow covered jeans and no shoes. Indicating he must have been somewhere nearby in his true form. Although his “regular” form could still easily kill a simple human. He held me tight, shielding me from the freeze and I began to drift from reality. Wasn’t I dead?   
Had Jacob come to finish me off, but just more modestly?   
Everything faded and prayers to god said just kill me now. My body was numb, as I lay completely flat on some kind of firm warm surface. Any source of light was dimmed enough to not hurt my half opened eyes, vision completely fuzzy, only shadows hovered over me. Where am I? Who was I?  
Low ghostly voices surrounded my still body and thoughts began to leak back into my head. Snow…red…blood…wolves? My eyes blinked for several minutes, until oversized wet jaws of daggers growled deeply and snapped at my face barely skimming my skin with a loud chomp sound. Hot burning breath caused an unnatural jump of my body as I shot up from the bed screaming any air I had in my lungs. “WOLVES! THE WOLVES!” I yelled hysterically flailing my hands at the air, practically thrashing myself off of the bed. My screams echoed, shaking off the walls and hitting back at me like a nightmare. “THE FUCKING WOLVES! THEY’RE COMING! FUUCK!” The loud obscene words involuntarily left my lungs, sucking precious air from me. Unknown hands came at me targeting my limbs, then to my face holding something transparent looking to my mouth. The haunting voices spoke up now singing my name. Now only whimpers dripped from me as I tried to heave in the heavy thick oxygen. My chest rose and dropped vigorously, hands and soft words begging me to calm down.   
I woke in a blur, moving shadows and bright lights. I think someone was stroking my arm


End file.
